The 2015 Golden Boy shortlist is fascinating 10 years on and includes forgotten 'next Lionel Messi'
The 2015 Golden Boy shortlist has reemerged, and the results are shocking ten years on.
Cast your mind back to November 2015. Chelsea were Premier League champions following their 2014/15 campaign title-winning season under the watchful eye of Jose Mourinho.
Barcelona were La Liga and European champions thanks to the brilliance of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar.
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And several English players were tipped for great things with Harry Kane, who played for Spurs at the time, winning the 2014/15 PFA Young Player of the Year award.
But this was not enough to earn him a place in the Golden Boy shortlist.
Dele Alli, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Luke Shaw were among the English players shortlisted.
One player was tipped to outperform them all, but 10 years on his career did not play out as once expected.
Alen Halilovic was expected to become a top player when he was just 17. The Croatian was widely dubbed the 'next Messi' after leaving Dinamo Zagreb for Barcelona in 2014.
However, he made just one senior appearance for the La Liga outfit before being loaned to Sporting Gijon in 2015.
He penned a permanent deal at German side Hamburger in 2016 before spells at AC Milan, Standard Liege, Heerenveen, Birmingham City, Reading, Rijeka and now Fortuna Stittard.
“The first two years were perfect at Barca but I expected I would get a chance at the first team in the third," he told The Athletic in 2024.
"Then I realised Luis Enrique did not see me there.”
“When you are young, you think you don’t have time and I had to be ahead of (Andres) Iniesta and Xavi (at Barca)," he added.
"Looking now, I just needed to be patient. Train and wait. It will come.
“I learned a lot even just training with the first team and got to play with (Lionel) Messi, who was my idol. He is not from this world so I expected it, but (Sergio) Busquets really surprised me. He is the best player I have ever trained with.”
Full 2015 Golden Boy shortlist
Premier League: Nathan Ake (Watford; on loan from Chelsea), Dele Alli (Tottenham), Héctor Bellerín (Arsenal), Jordon Ibe (Liverpool), Kelechi Iheanacho (Manchester City), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea), Anthony Martial (Manchester United), Divock Origi (Liverpool), Luke Shaw (Manchester United), Adama Traoré (Aston Villa).
La Liga: Marco Asensio (Espanyol), Zakaria Bakkali (Valencia), Ángel Correa (Atlético Madrid), Danilo Barbosa (Valencia), Munir El Haddadi (Barcelona), Alen Halilovic (Barcelona), Sandro Ramírez (Barcelona),
Bundesliga: Kingsley Coman (Bayern Munich), Dahoud Mahmoud (Borussia M’gladbach), Francisco Rodríguez (Wolsfburg), Pierre-Emile Hojberg (Schalke), Adnan Januzaj (Borussia Dortmund; on loan from Manchester United), Max Meyer (Schalke),
Serie A: Ricardo Kishna (Lazio), Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (Lazio), Alessio Romagnoli (Milan)
Ligue 1: Mario Pasalic (Monaco; on loan from Chelsea), Adrien Rabiot (PSG), Adama Traoré (Monaco)
Turkish Super Lig: Jason Denayer (Galatasaray; on loan from Manchester City)
Dutch Eredivise: Anwar El Ghazi (Ajax Amsterdam), Gaston Pereiro (PSV), Tonny Vilhena (Feyenoord)
Portuguese Primeira Liga: Goncalo Guedes (Benfica), Ruben Neves (Porto)
Kazakhstan Premier League: Nemanja Maksimovic (Astana)
Croatian Prva Liga: Marko Pajca (Dinamo Zagreb)
Belgian Jupiler Pro league: Moses Simon (KAA Gent), Youri Tielemans (Anderlecht)
Serbian SuperLiga: Andrija Zivkovic (Partizan Belgrade)
(Clubs correct in November 2015)
Topics: Football, Premier League, Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Neymar, Champions League, FC Barcelona
Luke Davies